NEW YORK, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Simmons Research, the leading source of essential consumer intelligence, today announced the integration of RMT DriverTagsTM into Holistic PsychographicsTM, its system that explains why certain TV shows secure high ratings and certain ads generate higher ROI. The integration also serves as the foundation for Predictive Consumer Insights, the first end-to-end total consumer research and predictive insights solution that maximizes return on ad spend.

"Our clients use Simmons to understand complex consumer behaviors, create segments, define targets and select media to reach and influence these consumer targets," said Pat Pellegrini Ph.D., President and Chief Research Officer of Simmons. "With this integration, clients can now inform creative messaging and predict consumer intent to increase return on ad spend. This helps us provide the first truly comprehensive total research system for advertising."

Simmons' Holistic Psychographics, a measurement of approximately 1000 distinct consumer psychographic traits, will now include 265 DriverTags, psychological metatags that can be attached to programs and ads, and are shown to lift ROI an average of 36 percent*. Uniquely, Simmons has also created a propensity index for each psychographic trait to the usage of 8,000 brands under measurement.

"Until now it was impossible to combine psychological variables in a product that aligns the four forces essential to effective advertising (i.e. the ad, program/editorial environment, consumer target and brand/category)," said Bill Harvey, Chairman and Chief Research Officer at Research Measurement Technologies (RMT). "Our RMT DriverTags now provide a common language across the four key ad effectiveness dimensions." DriverTags are a product of RMT, formed in 2014 by Harvey and media research industry veteran Bill McKenna.

"The success of programmatic buying will turn on the invention of a 'bar code' for tagging the intangible products of the mind, so that the triple helix of ads, programs, and audiences can be zipped together to gain marketing efficiency," said Chuck Young, Founder and Chairman of Ameritest. "In my opinion, DriverTags is heading down the right path for solving that problem."

Simmons' Predictive Consumer Insights, a new product powered by Holistic Psychographics, pinpoints the top psychographic attributes that predict ownership of a brand, and identifies the top prospective consumers for that brand. It also informs the creative and content strategy so brands know which creative units and messages to execute, increasing the probability of higher ROI.

"This is the industry's biggest leap forward since purchaser targeting, and this will have more ROI lift than that because it goes right to the heart of advertising, which is the interaction among psychological factors at the intersection of the audience, ad, context and brand," said Andrew Susman, SVP of Empower and Co-Chair of the Trust & Transparency Coalition. "DriverTags and Simmons' holistic approach to psychographics in general can transform advertisers into valued friends instead of boogeymen."

"It's easy to forget people — real human beings — in media planning and buying," said Alice Sylvester, co-author of Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer. "The focus on numbers takes us further and further away from people, but this research brings the spotlight to the human condition, and serves as a critical layer of understanding how advertising really works. This consumer psychographics work is exciting. We as an industry have to figure out how to keep human emotions and needs front and center, particularly as we go down more of an automated path."

About RMTResearch Measurement Technologies, Inc. is a company of innovators whose previous contributions to the industry have achieved wide adoption and renown. The corporate mission is to provide integrated predictive technologies that drive ROI optimization for advertisers, media, agencies, research companies and others in the marketing ecosystem, while bringing the most personally relevant and pleasurable experiences to the population. In addition to DriverTags, RMT also has a technology for optimizing ROI by means of hyperlocal variations in stimuli, which is called Hy-Ops, and IP from nine new Bill Harvey patents and Next Century Media. www.rmt.solutions.

About Simmons ResearchSimmons Research is the leading source of essential consumer intelligence. Simmons measures American consumer psychographics, preferences, attitudes, and media behaviors by closely overlaying survey and passively measured data using advanced measurement sciences. For more than 60 years, Simmons has helped leading brands, agencies, and media companies effectively engage with consumers, providing measurement of over 60,000 consumer elements, including all major media, 600 attitudes and opinions, 500 product categories, and 8,000 brands. For more information, please visit www.simmonsresearch.com and follow @simmonsresearch on Twitter.